Reckless or Responsible?

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On 1/21/26 four councillors voted to approve early consideration for the Hidden Hills real estate project in a rural area of North Cowichan.

They ignored unprecedented and dire warnings from North Cowichan’s distinguished Fire Chief Ron French, and Deputy Fire Chief, Chris Jancowski, who said the real estate development was a “grave concern.”

Here are the facts:

-The remote, 118-acre property is 20 minutes distant from fire-fighting help. Additional minutes are required for the on-call firefighters to leave their homes and places of work and arrive at the firehall. In fire suppression, every minute counts.

-The Hidden Hills project would create a bare land strata for up to 42 homes at the end of a single road. In case of a fire, the single road for ingress and egress to the property can become a death trap for residents and firefighters. In California’s Camp Fire in 2018, 85 persons burned to death, many stuck in their vehicles trying to escape the flames on the single road out of town.

-On the eastern slope of Mt. Sicker, the property borders the municipal forest. There are no fire breaks between the property and the Municipal Forest Reserve.

-North Cowichan lacks wildland fire equipment. Equipment is for fighting structure fires. If a fire starts in, or spreads to the forest, it will be very difficult to stop.

-Inadequate water to fight fires. The development is dependent on wells and has no city water service. There are no fire hydrants on the property. The developer has not provided concrete information on plans to potentially address this.

The Municipality’s Chief Administrative Officer, Ted Swabey, also gave these warnings:

-If approved, North Cowichan is not likely to meet provincial regulations on fire department response time to the property. That’s a liability for the municipality.

-If there’s a loss of life and/or structures, the municipality can be sued for approving an unsafe project.

Staff strongly recommended against the project’s amendment to the Official Community Plan and change the land use from Agriculture, Forestry, Conservation to Rural Residential to facilitate subdivision for rural housing.

Mayor Douglas, Councillors Justice and Istace voted against early consideration. It was approved nonetheless, given the 4 votes in favour by Councillors Findlay, Manhas, Caljouw, and Hogg.

On 3/4/26, Mayor Douglas, concerned about this project’s impacts, brought it back for reconsideration and another vote, with both Chief Thomas of the Halalt First Nation, and the Hidden Hills developer presenting information.

Chief Thomas asked councillors to vote against the Hidden Hills application. He raised concerns about the impacts of increasing sediment from cleared land and watershed logging. He reminded Council of the flooding onto Halalt land that devastated that community in 2024. (The Municipality is a defendant in a lawsuit by the Halalt First Nation). This new development would cause further flooding and take scarce water out of the aquifer.

Ignoring Chief Thomas’ warnings, On 3/4/26, Councillors Findlay, Manhas, Caljouw and Hogg once again voted for early consideration of the Hidden Hills development.

Mayor Douglas, Councillors Justice and Istace voted against.

The Hidden Hills project will now return for full consideration at a later date.

We believe that approving this hazardous project means that the municipality, the firefighters, the public, and the taxpayers will be at risk. So we have a few questions:

Since 4 councillors ignored the fire department’s unprecedented warnings, do they think they know firefighting better than our professionals?

Since 4 councillors ignored the liability to the municipality, do they think they know the law and provincial standards better than our professionals?

Are the interests of taxpayers - and the public’s safety - being sacrificed?

Here’s what Councillor Hogg had to say about the project.

Did councillors make a reckless or responsible decision?

YOU decide on October 17.